Friends?
by Dawn Zabini
Summary: B'Elanna Torres meets someone from her days at the academy. Kinda sequel to 'A Risan Holiday'. R


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Qapla' jup

Disclaimer: I own nothing. ;-)

Chapter 1

Commander B'Elanna Torres fought hard to supress a yawn. She sat at a table in a restaurant on _Utopia Planetia_, relaxing a bit, before the next lecture on – she shifted through the pile of datapads in front of her until she had found the one describing her next "lesson" – "Quantum Warp – Does it really work?"

It was the 9. annual lecture week on _Utopia Planetia_, and, as a (temporal) professor af Starfleet Academy it was B'Elanna's duty to attend as many classes as possible. Today was the fourth day, but to her it felt more like the fourth week. As though it wasn't bad enough she had to give lessons, now she even had to attend them. 

"B'Elanna?" she only now noticed the handsome officer standing at her table. She looked up suspiciously, half fearing to see Com. Bladock, the extremely annoying Chief Engineer of the _USS-Dakota_, who had followed her ever since they had shared a shuttle transport from Earth. 

"Yes?" she eyed the Commander, who looked oddly familiar. "Hey, it's me ... Mark McHenry." he grinned at her. 

"Mark!" she stood up to hug the navigator. "Come, sit down. What are you doing here?" He sat down, placing a glass of orange juice infront of him. They smiled at each other, not knowing what to say. "Wow. It has been ages since we last saw eachother" B'Elanna finally broke the silence. "Indeed." McHenry said, staring down at the table. "So, why are you here?" She shot him a questioning look. "Oh, well, I like to be up-to-date on new navigational systems, warp technologie and the like." He smiled at her. "I don't have to ask you what you're doing here." he paused a moment. "So, where are you stationed?" She sighed. "I'm teaching at the academy..." she looked up when she heard him chuckle. "What?" "Oh, it's just that you never seemed to like the academy ...you broke off after all ... and now you're stuck there again. I think that's funny." she snorted. "Yeah, really. So, what about you?" she asked. "I'm chief-helmsman of the _USS-Excalibur_." B'Elanna frowned. "Isn't that the starship stationed in the former thalonian sector?" he nodded. "The very same." "So, what's it like out there?" he grinned once more. "Shouldn't it be me asking that? I mean, what's the Thalonian Sector compared to the Delta-Quadrant?" "Oh, I'm sure you read tons about it already." she said with a smile. "Yeah, you're right. OK... well, the _Excalibur_ is a great ship, we meet ... interesting ... people and the crew's the best I ever served with." "Well, tell me about them." she said encouragingly. "Alright, you asked for it. The Captain is quite, ehm, let's say unorthodox. But he's really fun. He's married to the former first officer, who has now a comand herself. Our new first officer is the former chiefengineer. You'd like him/her." B'Elanna looked at him puzzledly. "Pardon?" Mark smiled. "He/she's a Hermat. He/she's living together with our Doc, a vulcan. They have a son." she stared at him. "A vulcan and a hermat?" he sighed. "Yeah, exactly." he fell silent. "Mark? What's bothering you?" he shook his head. "Uhm, nothing... it's just that ... well, I keep thinking about the last time we saw us ... Are we still friends?" 

= = = *** Flashback ***= = =

"Hi sweetheart!" 21-years-old McHenry said as he sat down in a chair besides his half-klingon friend. She didn't even bother to look up from her engineering homework. He, too, settled down on reading something for aerodynamics. 

They had met 1 ½ years ago in the accademy's library, where they had both studied for two weeks every night in a row. Since then they had become good friends, oftentimes meeting to learn together or chat.

After some time McHenry spoke up. "Hey, you heard about that springball?" B'Elanna nodded silently. "Why?" he smiled. "Wanna come with me, or do you already have a date?" she looked up from her pad. "I have no date. Actually I didn't plan on coming..." he looked at her expectingly. "Chance you change your mind?" And after a pause he continued. "Oh, come on! It's gonna be fun. You absolutely have to accompany me by the way, because otherwise I'd be the only single-guy." she sighed. "Alright. But I won't stay too long." he smiled at her broadly. "Deal!"

End of Part One

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So, did you like it? Flames welcome. cu soon (hopefully)


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